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Calls for Governor to Quit in Scandal

Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois left his home in Chicago on Thursday, two days after he was arrested on federal corruption charges.Credit
Amanda Rivkin for The New York Times

CHICAGO — Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois returned to work here on Wednesday amid whirlwind efforts across the state and country to remove him from office before he could make an appointment to the vacant United States Senate seat that is the root of a debilitating criminal case against him.

In what the lieutenant governor, Pat Quinn, called a “crisis situation,” Illinois lawmakers scrambled to find a way to force the governor’s exit while President-elect Barack Obama called for his resignation and Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, warned him that he should “under no circumstances make an appointment.”

“This is a crisis of confidence of people in their government in a democracy,” Mr. Quinn said, in an interview from the same downtown office building where Mr. Blagojevich, a two-term Democrat, was said by a staff member to be having meetings. “The governor has to resign, or at the very least step aside.”

At the same time, some of the elements sketched out in a 76-page criminal complaint against Mr. Blagojevich on Tuesday came into sharper view, as federal authorities identified Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr. of Illinois as the potential Senate candidate who was described in the complaint as most intertwined with Mr. Blagojevich in deal-making for the empty seat.

Mr. Jackson, a Democrat, angrily denounced Mr. Blagojevich at a news conference in Washington, saying he had done nothing wrong and did not know that the selection process had been corrupted. Mr. Jackson, who met with Mr. Blagojevich about the Senate opening for 90 minutes on Monday, said he was cooperating and would meet with investigators from the office of Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, who is leading the investigation.

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Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois left his home through a back alley on Wednesday in Chicago.Credit
Mark Carlson/Associated Press

The identity of another important figure in the case against Mr. Blagojevich, known only as “Individual A” in the complaint, also became apparent on Wednesday. Law enforcement officials said he was John Wyma, a lobbyist, fund-raiser and close adviser to Mr. Blagojevich, who went to the federal authorities in October with a tale of corruption that helped lead to the use of wiretaps on Mr. Blagojevich and eventually the governor’s arrest on Tuesday on charges of conspiracy and soliciting bribes.

Mr. Wyma’s assertions did not center on the vacant Senate seat but on different accusations of corruption included in the case against Mr. Blagojevich. The lobbyist said Mr. Blagojevich was improperly squeezing recipients of state aid for large contributions in an attempt to amass a $2.5 million campaign fund before Jan. 1, when a new state law takes effect barring contributions from state contractors.

In arresting Mr. Blagojevich on Tuesday, Mr. Fitzgerald said there were “a lot of things going on that were imminent” and that “we were in the middle of a corruption crime spree, and we wanted to stop it.”

Mr. Blagojevich’s lawyer did not return calls for comment on Wednesday, and Mr. Blagojevich made no public appearance outside of his office or statements about his situation. That he went to his Chicago office at all was considered some sort of statement, however, because the governor is known to prefer to avoid his offices here and in Springfield to work alone at his North Side home or some other unofficial location.

A lawyer for Mr. Blagojevich, who turned 52 on Wednesday, had said Tuesday that the governor denied any wrongdoing.

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Pedestrians are reflected in the window of a television studio showing an image of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois on Wednesday in Chicago.Credit
Joshua Lott for The New York Times

Also Wednesday, Bob Greenlee, 33, a deputy governor (and former deputy chief of staff to Mr. Blagojevich), resigned, said Kelley Quinn, a spokeswoman for the governor. Mr. Greenlee made $149,000 a year. Ms. Quinn said Mr. Greenlee did not say why he was resigning.

The criminal complaint against Mr. Blagojevich included a mention of a possible appointee to Mr. Obama’s seat identified only as Candidate 4 and a deputy governor. There were, until Mr. Greenlee’s resignation, three deputy governors under Mr. Blagojevich. Efforts to reach Mr. Greenlee were unsuccessful, but in a brief telephone conversation with The Associated Press, he said he had “been instructed” not to speak.

Lisa Madigan, the state’s attorney general (who has also been suggested as a possible Senate appointee, and was identified in the complaint as Senate Candidate 2), said she was weighing whether to file a complaint with the State Supreme Court seeking to declare the governor unfit to serve. Meanwhile, she said, state legislators were considering, perhaps as early as next week, a move to conduct impeachment proceedings against him.

She and Mr. Quinn, both Democrats, said they were also working on plans to create a special election to choose the next senator, should the appointment process simply be too tainted by a cloud of suspicion at this point. The Senate seat became empty with the election of Mr. Obama as president in November, and under state law, the governor is assigned to name a replacement to fill the remainder of the term, which runs through 2010.

“He doesn’t show any signs of resigning or any willingness to do that,” said Ms. Madigan, who has long been viewed as a rival to Mr. Blagojevich. “It will take time for an impeachment proceeding, and it may end up that the most efficient way to proceed is to have the Supreme Court declare him unfit. We are certainly considering that.”

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Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois with his wife, Patti, in Chicago after he won the Democratic nomination in March 2006.Credit
Brian Kersey/Associated Press

Much of the political world in Chicago and Springfield was buzzing Wednesday with guesses, based on hints in the court papers, about the identities of the various other people in the complaint, including those under consideration by the governor for Mr. Obama’s seat. At his news conference, Mr. Jackson acknowledged that he was the politician referred to as Senate Candidate 5 in the complaint; Valerie Jarrett, who is to be one of Mr. Obama’s White House aides, had previously been identified as Senate Candidate 1.

According to the complaint, in the weeks of recorded phone calls at his home and campaign office, Mr. Blagojevich considered various ways that he might financially gain from the possible Senate appointments. He talked about how one potential choice might help him secure a post with the Obama administration as a cabinet secretary, and he also talked about possible deals that might win him a union leadership post or a high-paying job with a nonprofit organization.

The complaint also said the governor was trying to obtain contributions from a lengthy list of people and companies, a list that the complaint said was turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The document also provided a compendium of instances in which Mr. Wyma, the Blagojevich associate cooperating with the authorities, said Mr. Blagojevich had exhorted Mr. Wyma and others to quickly bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.

The complaint said Mr. Blagojevich told Mr. Wyma in early October that he wanted the chief executive of Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago to raise $50,000 after it had been awarded $8 million in state money. At one point, Mr. Blagojevich threatened to withdraw the state money because the hospital executive had failed to make an earlier contribution the governor had expected, the complaint said.

Neither Mr. Wyma nor a lawyer for him could be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Even as officials here were digesting how the accusations against Mr. Blagojevich had tainted current state business mentioned in the complaint — including financing for the children’s hospital, a road contract and horse racing legislation — some were beginning to worry that other problems associated with Mr. Blagojevich’s doings might now be uncovered. In the worst-case scenario, some state officials said, companies that were passed over for big contracts might find grounds to sue the state, asserting that the awarding of contracts was unfair or corrupt.

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Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, right, returned to his home in Chicago on Tuesday afternoon after being released on a $4,500 cash bond.Credit
Carlos Javier Ortiz for The New York Times

“This really calls into question not just the issues he’s working on, but also the issues he has worked on — really everything,” Ms. Madigan said.

Mr. Quinn, the lieutenant governor, said the overall mood in state government was distressing, as Illinois is not a place that can afford to coast with a lack of state leadership in troubling financial times or without its full complement of representation in Washington.

“My advice to anyone right now,” Mr. Quinn said, “is to have nothing to do with the governor. He should not be governor.”

Mr. Blagojevich may be trying to hold on to the most potent bargaining power he has, that of resignation should he enter into plea talks with federal prosecutors, some experts suggested.

“If I were his lawyer, I’d sit down with him soon and say this case is not winnable, you’re going to the penitentiary pretty soon and the only question is for how long,” said Albert Alschuler, emeritus professor of law and criminology at the University of Chicago Law School, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law and a prominent expert on legal issues in Illinois. “Your bargaining power is greater today than it ever will be. The big question is whether the U.S. Attorney’s Office would be willing to make some sentencing concessions in exchange for a resignation from office.”

A spokesman for Mr. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney, would not comment on any aspects of the investigation, which is continuing, including the possibility of a grand jury indictment against Mr. Blagojevich.

Professor Alschuler said the case against the governor was so strong that an indictment was “for sure.”

“He’s dead,” Professor Alschuler predicted.

Christopher Drew and Monica Davey contributed reporting from Chicago, and David Johnston from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Calls for Governor to Quit In Scandal on Senate Seat. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe